Italy: biometric passport update

Alessandro Alessandroni

alessandroni@digitpa.gov.it

European Biometrics Symposium Brussels- 17th February 2012

DigitPA

overview

Introduction

Legislative framework

Privacy issues

Biometrics quality

Passport verification

Involved Agencies

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE): responsible for issuing passports to Italian nationals abroad, at Italian diplomatic-consular missions

• Ministry of Interior (MI):owner of the issuing process, responsible for issuing passports in Italy, at the police offices (Questure)

• Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (IPZS), the national

printing office: official government contractor for Italy’s electronic passport technology

• DigitPA(*) (National Agency for the Digitalisation of Italian Public Administration): technical guideline for biometrics

BioLAB - University of Bologna

(*) ex CNIPA

Passport issuing

Consular posts

Police offices

National data center

M.F.A.

IPZS

CVCA

legislation

Reg EC n.2252/2004

Dec. C(2005) 409

Dec. C(2006)2909

Reg EC n.44/2009

DL 31.03.2005 n.43 After 01.01.2006: MRTD -> e-MRTD

DM MAE 29.11.2005 Document and chip characteristics

DM MAE 31.03.2006 Operative instructions

DM MAE 23.06.2009

• Passport with fingerprints

European level National level

DPA decisions

DL 31.03.2005 n.43 After 01.01.2006: MRTD -> e-MRTD

DM MAE 29.11.2005 Document and chip characteristics

(DB without fingerprints)

DM MAE 31.03.2006 Operative instructions

( DB without fingerprints)

DM MAE 23.06.2009 Passport with fingerprints

( DB without fingerprints)

Decision 26.07.2005 Biometric data used only for one-to-one

verification

Biometrics data not centrally stored

Decision 27.01.2006 Biometric data used only for one-to-one

verification

Biometrics data not centrally stored

Decision 18.06.2009 It 's necessary to define the offices

responsible for issuing the passport

DPA

Privacy issues

Biometric data stored in the chip can be used only for identity verification

Fingerprint captured are stored encripted locally and sent on vpn to the central system for digital signature

After the registration in the passport the biometrics data are deleted

Fingerprints are not stored in DB

Faces in DB can't be used for 1:N identification

DigitPA Guidelines

Technical guidelines to assure quality and interoperability of biometric data

Hw and sw requirements

Enrollment procedures

Privacy and security issues

Biometrics quality

Face image Photo scanner

Icao compliance sw

Compression

Fingerprint images Fingerprint scanner

Quality assurance sw

Compression

Enrollment procedure (best finger and best images selection)

Photo scanner

The photo capture device must allow the acquisition of images of size 3.5 cm x 4.5 cm with an optical resolution of at least 360 dpi and 24 bit RGB color depth.

The capture device can be a flatbed scanner or an equivalent device.

The characteristics of the device and accompanying software shall not adversely affect the quality of the scanned image introducing noticeable chromatic aberration, geometric distortion and blurriness.

The device must provide output in a bmp file format without any compression of the image.

11

Application Assessing Face Image Compliance to ISO/IEC 19794-5

Face image compliance sw

Performance evaluation of three applications with a database of compliant and non-compliant face images (*) shows that some requirements (blurred, unnatural skin tone, washed out, etc.) are easily

verifiable by an automatic software;

characteristics like hair across eyes or frame covering eyes are difficult to be automatically evaluated, and a human expert inspection is recommended;

characteristics such as too dark/light image and mouth open are not classified accurately by the SDKs, but a deeper analysis of the problem and the availability of training images would certainly allow to significantly improve the performance.

In the photo acquisition process the software application is used as a support for the operator, but is not binding on the acceptance of the photos.

(*) A. Alessandroni, M. Ferrara, A. Franco, D. Maio, D. Maltoni and L Palumbo, “Evaluating systems assessing

face-image compliance with ICAO/ISO standards” - Technical Report, DEIS - University of Bologna, March 2008

Applications Assessing Face Image Compliance to ISO/IEC 19794-5 Standard

Evaluation results

1 1 2 3

Fingerprint scanner

Requirements based on results of test to evaluate the effects of the various quality parameters on automated fingerprint recognition (*)

1”x1” IAFIS/Appendix F IAFIS/Appendix F PIV PIV PIV

High impact

Low impact

CNIPA-A

(*) A. Alessandroni, R. Cappelli, M. Ferrara and D. Maltoni, "Definition of Fingerprint Scanner Image Quality Specifications by Operational Quality", in proceedings European Workshop on Biometrics and Identity Management (BIOID 2008), Roskilde, Denmark, pp.29-35, May 2008

Enrollment process

Starting from index, three separate images are captured (by placing the finger three times on the scanner).

For each image, the quality score (NFIQ) is calculated.

The systems matches the three images against each other to avoid substitutions.

The best image, according to match score, is selected for storage

If no image has a score 1, 2 or 3, the operator acquires the fingerprint of the next finger in the sequence: index, middle, ring and thumb

Quality results (30/01/2012)

NFIQ=1

NFIQ=3

NFIQ=2

Right index

Left index

98% NFIQ = 1,2,3

96% finger = index

Fingerprint verification for passport issuance

The citizen in case of impediment can appoint another person to collect the document

The verification is done when the citizen receives his or her passport

The applicant enrolls the same set of fingerprints using the fingerprint scanner

The software application uses matching algorithm to compare these new fingerprint images to the images contained in the passport chip

In case of problems a new passport is issued free of charge

Seminario DigitPA “P@norama” sulle tecnologie innovative - 17 gennaio 2011

SIDAF

National Police DB

Trust and False

specimen

SDI/SIS

National Police DB

Schengen DB

Lost & stolen docs

MIPG

National Police

Document workflow

C-VIS

Biometric visaSIMSi

National Border Police

Statistical System

Border Information System (SIF)

CVCA/DV

e-Passport

National PKD

Passport and

Permit to stay

certificates

Border Police First line SIF clients

External systems

SIF

CVCA/DV

Permit to stay

Automatic Border Control (ABC) pilot project

DigitPA supports the Border Police project funded by european external borders fund

automatic gates for travelers crossing external borders at Milano-Malpensa Airport

automatic verification of the identity of the traveler by means of passport and other biometric travel documents (face recognition)

deployment of three different solutions in order to verify impact and benefits

Starting mid-2013

Mobile verification

Pilot projects with mobile devices for document and identity verification

In the field:

Car-based mobile device (tablet pc + add-on)

handheld device

At the border (seaports)

DigitPA and Italian Border Police partecipate to the European Mobile Identification Working Group (e-MOBIDIG)

www.e-mobidig.eu

Reuse of passport best practices

Technical guidelines for biometrics reused for:

New Residence permit card

Same technical requirements

Same enrolment procedures

New ID-card

Thank you all!

alessandroni@digitpa.gov.it